


The Shadow of Your Heart

by rosyrotten



Category: The Yogscast
Genre: F/M, Fluff, pure fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-07
Updated: 2014-09-07
Packaged: 2018-02-16 10:16:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,765
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2265957
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rosyrotten/pseuds/rosyrotten
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Zoeya just wants one perfect day in the midst of the chaos that is Tekkit Rebirth.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Shadow of Your Heart

**Author's Note:**

> In the aftermath of watching season 2 of the Blackrock Chronicles, the power of fluff compelled me to give them just one goddamn nice moment together. I'd say I'm not sorry, but I'm a little sorry.
> 
> Title from Cosmic Love by Florence and the Machine. Because I could literally not get any cheesier than this.

_I took the stars from my eyes, and then I made a map_   
_And knew that somehow I could find my way back_   
_Then I heard your heart beating, you were in the darkness too_   
_So I stayed in the darkness with you_

✽

Zoeya woke up on her side, staring directly into Rythian’s bare thigh. He was sitting up in bed, reading, breathing so completely steady and even he may as well have been sleeping. She rarely woke up early enough to catch him sleeping, but more often than not, the comfort of knowing he was watching over her while she slumbered outweighed the joy she got from seeing his face totally at rest.

“I want to have a completely perfect day,” Zoeya said, fingertips crawling up against his thigh to prod him lightly. Rythian raised an eyebrow but didn’t look up from his written word.

“And what, exactly, does that entail?”

“You have to be nice to me and do whatever I want,” Zoeya listed her demands, haughtiness fading as she went on, “and we can’t argue all day.”

“That does sound very _perfect_ for me,” Rythian countered, turning a page idly.

“You can have a perfect day next time,” Zoeya bargained. Surprisingly, Rythian made a noise of consent and put his book down, turning to look at her. Her chest tightened under his piercing gaze and her fingers pressed harder into his flesh.

“Okay, what do you want first?” he asked, voice quiet and Zoeya bit her lip, thinking.

“Kiss me and say ‘good morning’,” she said bravely despite the heat prickling in her cheeks. Rythian’s mouth twitched into a smile.

“Do you want to pretend to be asleep?” Rythian indulged her. Zoeya murmured her assent and shuffled back on her pillow, closing her eyes and willing herself to relax.

The minutes seemed to drag on as Zoeya tried to keep her eyes shut without squeezing them tightly together. Her body was hypersensitive to the feeling of the bed, overly aware of the little aches, and yet she couldn’t feel the air around her moving to indicate Rythian had shifted at all. She was about to open her mouth to tell him to get on with it or just forget about it altogether, when the bed creaked and his lips brushed softly against her, barely touching. Unconsciously moving towards him, he kissed her more firmly before pulling back to whisper against her lips. “Good morning,” she felt him breathe more than speak.

Her eyes flicked open, but he’d already moved back to upright, colour high on his dark cheeks. Zoeya buried her face in the bed covers and grinned knowing her face would be as red as her hair.

Rythian cleared his throat, determinedly looking at the opposite wall. “Eggs and bread for breakfast?”

“Uh huh!” she nodded against the pillow. Rythian slid out of bed fluidly, reaching for his usual tunic and pulling a fresh pair of trousers out of the chest. He looked over at her, almost analysing, before running a hand through his wayward hair.

“Come down when you’re ready,” he said, shoving his feet into boots and letting himself out of the bedroom.

“Okay,” Zoeya called in acknowledgement, wriggling down further into the bed to soak up the last of the heat before she had to face their draughty castle. Their rebuild had made good progress since her return, but there was plenty to do including fixing the plumbing in the bathroom and totally redoing the living room wall. Zoeya smiled to herself, pleased to have objectives but also satisfied by a good morning sleep in.

Tentatively, she stuck her legs out the side of the bed, making a high pitched noise in the back of her throat at the coldness of the floor. Surely high level magic should translate to central heating eventually, right? Zoeya dressed in a hurry, bouncing on the spot to stay warm as she pulled on a thick jersey over her top. She grabbed Rythian’s scarf that he’d left over the back of chair and went downstairs for breakfast.

✽

“Good morning, Teep!” Zoeya called out the door as she pushed them open to let the sunshine in. They hadn’t fixed the pressure plates to automate them opening and closing, yet, but at least they’d patched up the floor so that the sensitive lab alarm stopped going off when anyone walked through the front doors.

The mute dinosaur nodded back at her, then went back to closely watching Paul who was wandering aimlessly along the waterfront.

“Good morning, Paul,” Zoeya said to mostly deaf ears. She climbed the outside of the golem’s fence to smile inside at her friends, the obsidian warming up under the mid-morning sun.

“Good morning, Red Five, good morning Johnny Iron.”

Fishing in her pockets, she found a bushel of wheat and stuck it through a gap in the wooden pen, “good morning, Ringo.” The sheep bleated at her, munching on the golden ears.

Zoeya crouched down to allow their two dogs to leap over her, suffering through a good coating of wolf saliva and laughing. “Good morning Willow and Ghost Junior.”

Rythian trailed after her, drifting eerily through the air as she jogged around their perimeter to the cow pen at the back. “Good morning, mooshrooms!”

She rocked back on her heels as the mooshrooms shuffled towards the gate, looking for food. Zoeya spared a glance for the pool, which had somehow survived the destruction that the rest of Blackrock Hold had succumbed to. Perhaps it was worth the ten diamonds and friendship they’d paid after all.

“What are we doing next today, Zoey?” Rythian asked, coming down from a hover to land next to her, boots hitting the grass silently. He smelt of ozone, the scent Zoeya had come to associate with magic of all forms, but especially flying. Zoeya hummed, feeling energised by the fresh air and bright sunlight, which she appreciated all the more for being trapped in dark, dank mushroom prison.

“Farming,” she said with determination, unhooking the hoe from the strap across her back and wielding it menacingly.

✽

Zoeya exhaled hard as she sat on the grass heavily. She wiped the sweat from across her forehead and guessed she’d probably smeared dirt all over at the same time. Sticking the hoe into the ground next to her she admired their progress. Rythian was still poking the last of some seeds into the tilled ground. How he managed to remain almost completely dirt free, Zoeya didn’t know but she sure was jealous.

Leaning forward, she wrapped her arms around her legs and rested her chin on the tops of her knees. Looking at Rythian was always a difficult task, because so often when she looked at him he’d already be watching her. Now, he was completely focused on sowing, face relaxed except for a crinkle between his brows of concentration. The wisps of white hair at the front of his head flopped into his eyes and he pushed them back unconsciously.

When she’d first returned to Blackrock, Rythian had been wrapped up in his dark scarf and cloak again, shoulders stiff and bright eyes guarded at all times, but now he appeared loose limbed and calm.

The long soft slope of his back straightened by degrees as he finished up and turned to her.

“I’m exhausted,” she told him as he walked over.

“Try using the lifestone.” He hovered for a moment like he couldn’t decide whether or not to sit down and settled for crouching next to her. Zoeya reached into her pack and pulled out the lifestone. It was about the size of a brick but half the weight and always warm. The way the light in the centre of it pulsed was a little disconcerting, but it always seemed to give off a good vibe. She wrapped her hands around each end and closed her eyes, activating it.

A rush of cool air flowed over her body, momentarily fanning her long red hair out behind her. When she opened her eyes again, she didn’t look any cleaner, but she felt completely refreshed, the aches of a hard morning’s work disappeared from her body. Zoeya held it out to Rythian, but he shook his head.

“You keep it.”

He stood and helped Zoeya up, hands holding onto each other a moment longer than necessary.

✽

Zoeya stretched across the basalt, the black rock still warm despite the slowly encroaching clouds above. She was barely two feet from the bubbling mouth of the volcano, but the amulet she was twisting in her fingers from around her neck kept her safe from any harm Baby Jim could potentially do.

“Do I have to do this?” Rythian fidgeted uncomfortably, sitting cross legged next to her. Zoeya grinned.

“Uh huh, it’s my perfect day, remember Ryth.”

“I don’t see how this makes a day _perfect_ ,” he groused, but cleared his throat and sat up straight. “Let me tell you a story. About a boy and a—”

“No way!” Zoeya interrupted, lifting a foot to nudge into his side. He didn’t react but wobbled from her insistent poking. “Baby Jim’s heard that one thousands of times before.”

Rythian sighed. He’d already tried to get out of reading the volcano a bedtime story by pointing out that it was the middle of the day and also a volcano doesn’t sleep or, you know, have ears. Zoeya refused to let him get out of this one.

“Once upon a time,” he started again, “in a realm far, far away there was a beautiful and wonderful kingdom…”

Zoeya shut her eyes and let Rythian weave his tale. It became quickly apparent that as much as he protested, Rythian had become swept up in the story. Zoeya woke up from her doze just as he was finishing with ‘And its queen. The end.’ She brought her hands together in polite applause.

“Don’t patronise me, I know you were sleeping,” Rythian said, looking a little put out. Zoeya sat up and wrapped her arms around his shoulders apologetically. She rocked them back and forth, each motion getting wilder and wilder until he shrugged her off, trying to hide his smile.

They waited around a little longer to see if Nilesy would show up, but since he’d moved in with Lomadia he hadn’t been around as much and neither of them knew how to find him either.

✽

Zoeya thwacked a practically stubborn piece of machinery with her wrench. It made a dull ‘clunk’ noise, but the performance didn’t seem to improve any. She sighed. Then looked up at the nuke itself and sighed noisily again to indicate her deep dissatisfaction with its existence altogether.

She had shooed Rythian upstairs when he’d come down to offer his assistance. Not that she wouldn’t have appreciated his company, but when his best suggestions were to magic it away by unspecified means or cover it in something blast resistant and pretend it didn’t exist, his usefulness ran out quickly.

Instead, this was up to her. Zoeya half-heartedly bashed the box again and when it still didn’t respond she sat down on the edge of the metal platform she’d constructed and let her feet dangle over.

A shuffle behind her alerted her to the presence of Teep. Zoeya smiled over her shoulder as he lingered on the stairs. The mute dinosaur tilted his head in askance as she waved him over and he navigated gingerly around the machinery to her side. He crouched on his haunches next to her and Zoeya patted his snout affectionately as he snuffled at her hand.

The silence made Zoeya itch to fill it, but she came up empty on things to say. Teep was staring blankly up at shimmering force field, tail twitching every so often. She had no way of knowing what Teep’s comprehension of the situation was or if he could pick up on the tension around the castle. Zoeya managed to keep in another sigh, but it was a near thing.

“What’s the time?” Zoeya asked, stretching her legs and standing. Teep reached into the pouch around his middle and pulled out first a lever and then clock and offered the face up to her. “Is Rythian,” Zoeya struggled to figure out her next words. Most days she wanted to ask if Rythian was okay about ten times a day. It was as if the darkness hadn’t faded completely from his eyes, and she still didn’t fully know what had happened to him while she’d be away. Zoeya bit her bottom lip.

“Is Rythian around?” Teep nodded, gesturing upstairs with his head and snorting gently.

“Awesome, let’s get out of here.” She stuck the wrench in a back pocket and activated the outer force field as she and Teep passed on their way out. Zoeya paused at the top of the stairs, looking down at the monstrosity that threatened everything she held dear. Her hands tightened into fists.

✽

Rythian was spaced out on the couch, not slumped out like anyone else would be, but sitting up straight, hands together over his stomach as he stared out through the gaping hole in the wall. His eyes were shadowed and far away, face completely neutral. In his hands, he was turning over his Philosopher’s stone again and again.

Zoeya couldn’t claim that she’d known Rythian the longest, but she could definitely put a stake in knowing him best. And when he wasn’t even muttering to himself she knew he wasn’t doing magic; rather he was lost in thought or worries. That look just made her more determined to fix their problems as soon as possible and without weighing on his mind more.

She leant over the back of the couch and pressed a kiss to the centre of his head. Rythian looked up in surprise, face softening.

“There’s,” Rythian paused, slowly pulling his thoughts back to himself, “there’s mushroom stew sitting on the oven.”

Zoeya hummed, “shall I warm it up and you can take dinner out to Tee?”

He nodded and followed her into the kitchen, pulling several slabs of steaks from the ice chest and wrapping them in a piece of cloth. This was followed by a loaf of bread for Paul as well. Zoeya spooned out the stew into bowls as Rythian took out the food out to the dinosaur’s hut. She was singing to herself as he came back in and chuckled.

They ate in relative silence, stew and hot bread out the oven. The sun set in increments over the distance mountain range, a kaleidoscope of orange and red pouring in through the hole in the wall. Zoeya waited until she was mopping up the last mushroom before speaking.

“It was my birthday today.” She looked fixedly at the table, eyes pouring over the flaws in her own craftsmanship. When she did glance up, Rythian was watching her, unreadable expression on his face.

“I know,” he said simply. Zoeya’s heart clenched painfully. It was a concerted effort to relax her shoulders away from her ears. She suddenly felt very hot under her clothes.

“Oh,” she said, feeling stupid. “It’s just, you didn’t say.”

Rythian looked away, as if suddenly very interested in the far wall. “Well, you were having a perfect day.”

If Zoeya hadn’t been so focused on keeping everything together, her jaw might have fallen open. It was true that she didn’t know pretty much any details about Rythian’s life before they met, but she’d always had the sense that on some level they shared an understanding of subjects that were off-limits. Never before had she realised quite how deep that understanding ran. Her eyes prickled.

“Thank you,” she mumbled, standing hastily and bumping her knee on the table painfully. Zoeya bit her lip to stop herself calling out. He watched her, blankly, as she took a shaky breath and regained her composure. “You know what would make this day _really_ perfect?”

“What?”

Zoeya grinned. “Hot chocolate in bed.”

Rythian frowned, “no, Zoey, you’ll just spill it and I’ll have to wash the sheets. Again.” She made a mental note to tease him about the whining later, not wanting to ruin the moment now.

“Yes! C’mon,” she reached across the table for his hand and bodily tugging him out his chair and to the kitchen. To the surprise of no one, he came pretty easily.  

Without prompting, Rythian moved his palm against hers to intertwine fingers. Warmth spread through her, despite his colds hands, at the knowledge that even when they separated, he’d reach for her again.

 

**Author's Note:**

> Rythian's stories are, respectively, from Tekkit Adventure #30 (Let Me Tell You A Story) and The Princess from his Tumblr. Thanks for reading!


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